Chronology of
Louis Riel

(1844-1885)

Compiled by Rhonda Bailey

LOUIS RIEL AND THE MÉTIS	CANADA AND THE WORLD
	1670 King Charles II of Britain grants a royal charter to the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) for exclusive trading rights in Rupert’s Land, the drainage basin of Hudson Bay. The charter territory includes most of what is today the Prairie provinces and northern Ontario.
1780 Marie-Anne Gaboury (maternal grandmother of Louis Riel) is born in Maskinongé, diocese of Trois-Riviéres, Quebec.
	1783 The Treaty of Paris formally recognizes the United States of America (U.S.)
	Colonists loyal to the British Crown (Loyalists) leave the U.S. and move north into the Niagara Peninsula, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.
	The North West Company (NWC) is formed by a group of merchants in Montreal to manage the fur trade in the British territory to the west and north.
	1791 The British Constitutional (Canada) Act creates Upper Canada and Lower Canada, the future provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
	1803 The U.S. negotiates the purchase of the vast Louisiana Territory from the French.
1806 In Maskinongé, Marie-Anne Gaboury marries a fur-trader from Rupert’s Land, Jean-Baptiste Lagimodiére, formerly of Maskinongé. They are the future maternal grandparents of Louis Riel. Immediately following their marriage, the Lagimodiéres travel west by canoe. The journey ends at a Métis encampment on the Pembina River.	1806 In the U.S., the Lewis and Clark Expedition reaches the Pacific Ocean. United Sates Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins his explorations of the American west. After a Dutch surrender, the Cape Colony in southern Africa becomes a British colony.
1807 Marie-Anne Lagimodiére gives birth to a baby girl. The Lagimodiéres travel to the HBC post Cumberland House, where Marie-Anne and her daughter are the first white females resident in the West. The Lagimodiéres are in the North Saskatchewan region from 1807-1811. Marie-Anne accompanies her fur-trader husband on his hunting expeditions.	1807 David Thompson of the NWC crosses the Rocky Mountains and establishes Kootenai House, the first fur-trading post in what is now southeastern British Columbia. In the U.S., Robert Fulton’s steamboat travels from New York to Albany on the Hudson River and inaugurates the world’s first commercial steamboat service. The British Slave Trade Act outlaws the slave trade within the British Empire.
1811 Scots and Irish workmen, sent to prepare for the arrival of the first group of Selkirk’s colonists, are transported to Churchill by HBC ships and dropped off. Led by Miles Macdonell, first governor of Assiniboia, they arrive at Red River the following summer.Thomas Douglas,	1811 Thomas Douglas, the Earl of Selkirk, (Lord Selkirk) gains control of the HBC and arranges for a grant of 300,440 square kilometres of HBC land at Red River. Selkirk names the area Assiniboia and plans to establish an agricultural colony.
	David Thompson crosses the Rocky Mountains through Athabasca Pass and journeys down the Columbia River to the Pacific.
	Hand craftsmen called “Luddites” destroy machinery in English textile factories.
1812 In the spring, Jean-Baptiste Lagimodiére returns to Red River to settle with his family. He continues to hunt and is hired several times to supply food for the Selkirk settlers between 1812 and 1815. The second group of Selkirk’s colonists, from Ireland and the Hebrides, arrives at Red River in October. Houses are not ready and food is in short supply.	1812 British general Isaac Brock is killed at the Battle of Queenston Heights and becomes a Canadian hero. Napoleon of France invades Russia.
1814 Another group of Selkirk’s colonists arrives at Red River. They are from Kildonan in the Scottish Highlands. To ensure sufficient food for the settlers, Miles Macdonell forbids the export of any provisions from Assiniboia. This “Pemmican Proclamation” threatens the livelihood of the Métis.	1814 The Treaty of Ghent officially ends the War of 1812 in North America. There is bitter rivalry between the NWC and HBC in British North America, as both fur trade companies try to control the trade. The first steam locomotive is built, by George Stephenson in Great Britain.
1815 In the spring, the Métis, at the instigation of the NWC, harass the colonists until they force abandonment of the Selkirk colony. During the summer, some settlers return, and new colonists arrive with Robert Semple, who has been appointed governor of the HBC territories. Jean-Baptiste Lagimodiére is employed to carry dispatches to Lord Selkirk in Montreal. He completes the 2900-kilometre journey on foot, during the winter. Jean-Baptiste Riel, a NWC voyageur from Quebec, marries Marguerite Boucher, a Franco-Chipewyan Métisse, at Île-à-la-Crosse in the North Saskatchewan region.	1815 John A. Macdonald, the future first prime minister of Canada, is born. Otto von Bismarck, future Prussian/ German leader is born. In Europe, Napoleon is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and exiled.
1816 At Seven Oaks, in a confrontation with a band of Métis led by Cuthbert Grant, twenty men from the HBC post Fort Douglas are killed, including Robert Semple. Only one of the Métis men is killed. For his services to Lord Selkirk, Jean-Baptiste Lagimodiére receives a grant of land between the east bank of the Red River and the Seine in the Red River Settlement. He builds a house there for his expanding family.	1816 An economic crisis in Britain causes large-scale emigration to Canada and the U.S.
1817 Jean-Louis Riel (future father of Louis Riel) is born at Île-à-la-Crosse to Jean-Baptiste and Marguerite Riel.	1817 Riots against low wages take place in Derbyshire, England.
1821 The Métis people have come to identify themselves as a nation, with aboriginal rights to the land.	1821 After years of rivalry, the HBC and NWC are merged under the Hudson’s Bay Company name. The British government extends the HBC’s trade monopoly beyond Rupert’s Land to include the territory of the North-West.
1822 The Riel family returns from the West to Lower Canada, where young Jean-Louis Riel attends school and learns the trade of carding wool. Julie Lagimodiére (future mother of Louis Riel) is born to Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Anne Lagimodiére in the Red River Settlement.
	1824 The Geological Survey of Canada is founded. The Lachine Canal bypassing the rapids at Montreal is completed.
1834 Lord Selkirk’s estate sells Assiniboia back to the HBC.	1834 York is incorporated as the city of Toronto. William Lyon Mackenzie is elected mayor.
1837 Gabriel Dumont, future Métis leader and Louis Riel’s military commander during the North-West Rebellion, is born in the Red River Settlement.	1837 Rebellions occur in Upper and Lower Canada; the leaders - Louis-Joseph Papineau in Lower Canada and William Lyon Mackenzie in Upper Canada - go into exile in the U.S. Victoria is crowned Queen of Great Britain and the Empire.
1838 Jean-Louis Riel comes back to Rupert’s Land and works for the HBC.	1838 In Great Britain, Charles Dickens publishes Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist. Thousands of eastern Native Americans are removed from their ancestral homelands by the U.S. army and forced to move west. Many die along the way.
1840 A great buffalo hunt lasts two months. In the largest expedition ever to leave Red River, 1630 Métis people, including women and nearly 400 children, depart for the hunting grounds.	1840 The Act of Union is passed. Upper and Lower Canada will become Canada West and Canada East and unite to form the Province of Canada. New Zealand becomes a British colony. By the Treaty of Waitangi the Maori cede sovereignty but not land.
1842 Jean-Louis Riel goes to Canada East and enters a religious order. After a short time he withdraws because he feels he lacks a vocation for the priesthood.	1842 In Africa, the Boers set up the Orange Free State.
1843 Jean-Louis Riel returns to the North-West and settles in St. Boniface on a river lot near that of Jean-Baptiste Lagimodiére.	1843 In New Zealand, Maori revolts against Great Britain take place when settlers take Maori land, and the Maori retaliate by attacking the settlements.
1844 Jean-Louis Riel marries Julie Lagimodiére on January 21. A son, Louis Riel, is born to Jean-Louis and Julie on October 22 in the Red River Settlement, Rupert’s Land.	1844 In the U.S., inventor Samuel Morse uses the first intercity electromagnetic telegraph line to send a message between Washington and Baltimore.
1845 Alexandre-Antonin Taché becomes an Oblate priest and a Catholic missionary in Rupert’s Land.	1845 Having been pardoned the year before, Louis-Joseph Papineau returns to Canada East. In Ireland, the potato famine begins. Hundreds of thousands of destitute Irish people emigrate to North America.
1846 At Île-à-la-Crosse, Father Taché establishes the first Roman Catholic mission in the Saskatchewan territory.	1846 The Oregon Treaty sets the forty-ninth parallel as the boundary between the United States and the British lands to the north. The British retain Vancouver Island.
1847 The census lists 4,871 inhabitants of the Red River colony; 50 per cent are Catholics.	1847 Egerton Ryerson produces a study of Native education that will become the model for future residential schools in Canada. In the U.S., Mormons led by Brigham Young trek across country to escape religious persecution and establish Salt Lake City in Utah.
1848 A daughter, Sara, is born to Jean-Louis and Julie Riel.	1848 A group of radical young francophone intellectuals found the Parti rouge in Quebec. The California Gold Rush begins. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels issue the Communist Manifesto.
1849 Jean-Louis Riel leads the Métis community of Red River to aid Pierre-Guillaume Sayer, a Métis charged with illegal trading in furs. Sayer is released and his confiscated furs returned, an action that results in the end of the HBC’s trade monopoly.	1849 Lord Elgin, Governor of the Canadas, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, signalling the functioning of responsible government in the colony. William Lyon Mackenzie is pardoned and returns from the U.S.
1850 A daughter, Marie, is born to Jean-Louis and Julie Riel.	1850 A land grant act spurs the development of railroads in the U.S.
1851 Louis Riel begins attending school at the convent school of the Grey Nuns in St. Boniface. During the 1850s, Louis’s father is leader of the French community in Red River. Jean-Louis Riel advocates Métis representation on the Council of Assiniboia and the use of French as well as English in the courts of Assiniboia.	1851 In the U.S., the New York Times begins publication. Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is published. In Great Britain, Reuters news service is established. London holds the first world exhibition at the new Crystal Palace.
1852 The Red River floods, and the waters engulf the Riel family home. A daughter, Octavie, is born to Jean-Louis and Julie Riel.	1852 Susanna Moodie’s Roughing It in the Bush, which describes her experience of immigration to Canada, is published in London. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a bestseller in North America and Europe.
1853 A daughter, Eulalie, is born to Jean-Louis and Julie Riel.	1853 Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi writes the operas La traviata and II trovatore.
1854 Jean-Louis Riel sets up a gristmill on the Seine River and builds a bigger house for his family. A son, Charles, is born to Jean-Louis and Julie Riel. Bishop Alexandre-Antonin Taché supervises the building of a combined house and school for the Christian Brothers in St. Boniface. Louis Riel attends the school.	1854 A Reciprocity Treaty inaugurates free trade between the British North American colonies and the U.S. Britain, France, and Turkey declare war on Russia in the Crimea. Alfred Lord Tennyson publishes the poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” Florence Nightingale pioneers modern nursing.
1855 The voyageur Jean-Baptiste Lagimodiére, maternal grandfather of Louis Riel, dies.	1855 The Treaty of Paris ends the Crimean War. A world exhibition is held in Paris, France.
1857 A son, Joseph, is born to Jean-Louis and Julie Riel.	1857 Ottawa is chosen as the capital of the Province of Canada. The British expedition led by John Palliser begins its work in western North America to determine the suitability of the HBC lands for agricultural settlement. A revolt by Indian soldiers against the British is put down but leads to the end of the British East India Company’s rule of India.
1858 Louis Riel attracts the attention of Bishop Taché, who arranges for him to study for the priesthood. With two other Métis boys, he travels to Montreal. En route, he sees his father for the last time. Louis attends the Collége de Montréal while the other boys go to different schools. The boys spend part of their summer vacation with the Masson family.	1858 The Fraser River Gold Rush attracts large numbers of men, many of them Chinese. The mainland colony of British Columbia is established. The Irish Republican (Fenian) Brotherhood is established in North America. India becomes a crown colony of Great Britain.
1859 Louis does well in his studies. The curriculum includes Latin, Greek, French, English, mathematics, philosophy, and theology. The first steamship reaches St. Boniface.	1859 Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. The Nor’Wester weekly newspaper is established in Red River.
1860 The St. Boniface Cathedral is destroyed by fire.
1861 The other Métis boys return to Red River; only Louis remains at school in Montreal. Louis continues to spend part of his summer vacation with the Masson family each year; he becomes friends with Rodrigue Masson, a young lawyer. He spends the rest of his summer vacation time with his aunt and uncle in Mile End, on the outskirts of Montreal. In St. Boniface, Sara Riel enters the convent of the Grey Nuns as a novice. A daughter, Henriette, is born to Jean-Louis and Julie Riel.	1861 Abraham Lincoln is elected president of the U.S. The American Civil War begins. Future Canadian poet Emily Pauline Johnson is born at Chiefswood, near Brantford, Ontario. The kingdom of Italy is formed and Victor Emmanuel II becomes King.
1863 A son, Alexandre, is born to Jean-Louis and Julie Riel.
1864 In February, Louis Riel receives news of the death of his father. In the summer, Louis falls in love with Marie-Julie Guernon, who lives next door to his aunt and uncle in Mile End. He begins to write love poems.	1864 In September, at the Charlotte-town Conference, delegates from five provinces of British North America discuss union under one government. In October, they hold a second meeting, the Quebec Conference. Louis Pasteur of France invents pasteurization.
1865 Louis Riel decides to enter a profession. He neglects his school-work and rebels against college discipline. He is expelled and goes to live with his aunt and uncle in Mile End. He studies law in Montreal with well-known lawyer and Parti rouge supporter Rodolphe Laflamme.	1865 In the U.S., President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated; the Civil War ends. The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishes slavery. The Ku Klux Klan is founded.
1866 Louis Riel and Marie-Julie Guernon sign a wedding contract and announce their forthcoming marriage. Marie-Julie’s parents are outraged; within a week she breaks their engagement. Riel leaves Montreal.	1866 The colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island unite. Fenians invade Canada and are repelled by the Canadian militia and British troops at the Battle of Ridgeway. In Europe, Prussia defeats Austria in a seven-week war. Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.
1867 A grasshopper plague causes distress in the Red River Settlement during 1867-1868. The buffalo are disappearing due to overhunting; the fur trade is in decline due to a change in fashion in Europe. Many Métis in Red River have turned to full-time farming.	1867 The British North America Act establishes the Dominion of Canada, uniting Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario; John A. Macdonald is elected prime minister and is knighted by Queen Victoria. The Clear Grits and the Rouges unite to become the Liberal Party of Canada. The U.S. buys Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million.
1868 Louis Riel returns from working in the U.S. to live in the Red River Settlement. His mother and family have moved to the parish of St. Vital on the east bank of the Red River, near the Lagimodiére family. Riel works on the farm and tries to help his family. Charles Mair arrives in Red River as paymaster for the work crew on the Dawson Road to be built between Upper Fort Garry and Lake of the Woods.	1868 The HBC relinquishes its trading monopoly and transfers title of Rupert’s Land to Canada in exchange for £300,000 ($1.5 million), the lands around its trading posts, and l/20th of the good agricultural lands on the Prairies. Completion of a railway linking St. Paul and eastern North America facilitates access to the Red River Settlement.
1869 In January, a letter of Charles Mair’s giving an account of Red River is published in the Toronto Globe. He hopes to encourage immigration from Ontario. In February, Louis Riel writes a letter to the editor of a Montreal newspaper, he Nouveau Monde. He asserts that Mair has not told the truth about Red River and its people. In June, Charles Mair and John Snow, an Ontarian in charge of building the Dawson Road, begin pacing out lots on Métis land but are driven off. In July, the Métis hold a meeting and choose two captains to arrange patrols and keep strangers off Métis land. In August, Canadian surveyors led by Colonel Dennis arrive in the Red River Settlement. Louis Riel addresses a crowd from the steps of the rebuilt St. Boniface Cathedral. He warns them the Canadian government has sent no guarantees the land rights of the inhabitants of Red River will be respected after takeover. On October 1, Riel meets with Colonel Dennis of the survey party. Dennis assures him the Canadian government plans to grant free titles to all existing landholders. Riel is not convinced. On October 6, he writes a letter to a newspaper, he Courtier de Saint-Hyacinthe, in hope of sparking sympathy in Quebec for the MÉtis cause. On October 11, the survey party begins to survey the property ofÉdouard Marion, a Métis farmer. Riel and others stand on the survey chain and demand that they stop. The surveyors withdraw. On October 16, at a meeting at St. Norbert, the Métis elect representatives to a new organization called the National Committee. John Bruce is elected president and Louis Riel secretary. On October 17, the Committee builds a roadblock. On October 21, they send a letter to order Lieutenant-Governor McDougall not to enter the territory without permission of the National Committee of the Métis. On November 2, Métis men under orders from the National Committee confront William McDougall just north of the border. They escort him back to the U.S. the next morning. Meanwhile, Riel and 120 men take control of Upper Fort Garry. Riel and the Métis draw up a List of Rights. On December 8, Riel issues the Declaration of the People of Rupert’s Land and the North-West, which establishes a provisional government. John Bruce is declared president. Riel replaces him later in December. Members of the Canadian party, led by John Schulz, are disarmed by the Métis and imprisoned in Fort Garry.	1869 The Dominion of Canada is scheduled to take control of Rupert’s Land on December 1. Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald sends William McDougall as first Canadian lieutenant-governor of the North-West Territories. The Suez Canal opens, allowing transportation between Europe and Asia without circumnavigation of Africa. The first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. is completed when the Central Pacific and Union Pacific lines meet.
1870 On January 9, a small group of Riel’s prisoners, including Charles Mair and Thomas Scott, escape from jail. Scott, an Irish Orangeman who is contemptuous of the Métis, is recaptured on February 17. On March 3, Thomas Scott is tried before a Métis council, convicted, and sentenced to death. He is executed the next day by firing squad. On March 6, the joint provisional government meets for the first time. On March 23 and 24, delegates leave for Ottawa to negotiate with the government of Canada. On April 9, Riel proclaims the end of martial law. On June 25, the provisional government (renamed the legislative assembly) accepts the Manitoba Act unanimously. Manitoba becomes a province on July 15. In August, Colonel Wolseley and his troops reach Red River; the troops are dominated by young Ontario Orangemen. Riel flees across the U.S. border. He spends the fall and winter in St. Joseph, near the border.	1870 In May, the Manitoba Act creates Canada’s fifth province; it recognizes French and English as official languages and allows funding of Protestant and Catholic schools by public taxation. Section 31 of the Manitoba Act promises to distribute 1.4 million acres (3,459,000 hectares) of land among Métis children. Section 32 promises the Métis will receive title to the lands they already occupy. Prime Minister Macdonald sends soldiers under Colonel Wolseley to Red River on a “mission of peace.” The province of Ontario offers a $5000 reward for the capture of those responsible for the death of Thomas Scott. France declares war on Prussia. In India, the Calcutta to Bombay railway link makes travel across the subcontinent possible.
1871 In February, Riel is seriously ill with fever and swollen joints. In May, he returns to St. Vital. Sara Riel travels to Île-à-la-Crosse as a missionary nun. Riel makes a speech in honour of Bishop Taché, who has been made an archbishop. In October, without disclosing his identity, Riel meets Lieutenant-Governor Archibald in St. Boniface. In December, masked men break into the Riel homestead and ransack it while Louis is away at a meeting. Between 1871 and 1884, as many as 4000 Métis people migrate west to the Saskatchewan territory.	1871 British Columbia joins Confederation as the sixth Canadian province on the promise that a transcontinental railway will be built within ten years. Sandford Fleming accepts the position of Chief Engineer of the proposed Pacific Railway. Treaty No. 1 and Treaty No. 2 are signed between the government of Canada and Saulteaux (Plains Ojibwa) and Cree First Nations. Emily Carr, future painter and writer, is born in Victoria, B.C. The Franco-Prussian War ends with Prussia victorious. William I, King of Prussia, is proclaimed German Emperor; Germany is finally a unified nation.
1872 In February, Riel and Ambroise Lépine agree to Prime Minister Macdonald’s request that they leave the country. They travel to St. Paul in the U.S. Lépine returns to Red River. Riel writes about the Scott affair for a Quebec newspaper. He then returns to Red River and begins to campaign for the nomination in the Provencher riding. In September, Louis Riel refuses the nomination in Provencher riding. George-Etienne Cartier is elected by acclamation. Riel expects Cartier to help resolve the Métis land claims issue and to speed an amnesty for himself and Ambroise Lépine.	1872 Quebec Liberal Honoré Mercier and others found the Parti national; Mercier is elected to the House of Commons. Canada passes the Dominion Lands Act to administer and manage the public lands of Manitoba and the North-West Territories and to encourage settlement. The Manitoba Free Press is founded. In France, Jules Verne publishes he tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours, which is translated and published in English the following year as Around the World in Eighty Days.
1873 In January, Louis is shaken by the death of his sister, Marie. He goes into a religious retreat in March and April. In May, Riel learns that George-Étienne Cartier has died. He decides to run in the byelection in Provencher riding. In September, a warrant is issued in Winnipeg for the arrest of Louis Riel and his second-in-command, Ambroise Lépine. In October, Louis Riel is elected as a Member of Parliament by acclamation in the federal byelection. He goes to Montreal, where old friends introduce him to influential people. He does not enter Parliament in Ottawa for fear of arrest. In December, Riel stays with the Barnabé family in Keeseville, New York.	1873 Prince Edward Island joins Confederation. Treaty No. 3 is signed between the government of Canada and the Saulteaux (Plains Ojibwa). In the Cypress Hills, after a quarrel with an Assiniboine band over horses, American whisky traders cross the border and raid the Assiniboine village. Thirty-six Assiniboine people are killed, and the village is burned. Canada establishes the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) to keep the peace. Winnipeg, Manitoba is incorporated as a city. None of the 1.4 million acres promised under the Manitoba Act has been allotted to the Métis. In Ottawa, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald resigns over charges of bribery; the new Liberal prime minister, Alexander Mackenzie, calls a general election.
1874 In January, Riel is in Montreal. In February, Riel retains his seat in the general election; in March he goes to Ottawa, signs the register, but is expelled from Parliament. He returns to Keeseville. He travels to St. Paul and Quebec. He speaks at protest meetings and visits influential people who might help him obtain amnesty. In September, Riel is again elected to Parliament by the voters of Provencher. In November, Ambroise Lépine is convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. In December, on a mountaintop in Washington, D.C., Riel has a vision and receives a heavenly message concerning his mission as the leader of his people.	1874 Pressure cooking, a new procedure for sterilizing canned foods, is introduced in the U.S. by Isaac Solomon. Treaty No. 4 is signed between the government of Canada and the Cree, Saulteaux (Plains Ojibwa), and Assiniboine peoples. Section 32 of the Manitoba Act is amended to require proof of significant improvements to the land occupied before ownership will be granted. To satisfy land claims under the Manitoba Act, the Canadian government issues certificates called “scrip,” which can be exchanged for Crown land in any area open for settlement. Scrip is issued to Métis children and heads of households and to “original white settlers” who came to Red River during the Selkirk Settlement years.
1875 In January, the Governor General of Canada commutes Lépine’s sentence to two years’ imprisonment. In February, amnesty is granted for all participants in the Red River Resistance. However, Riel and Lépine are to be banished for five years and have their political rights suspended for life. Riel is again expelled from Parliament. In December, Riel is in Washington, D.C., where he speaks with President Ulysses S. Grant. Riel has a powerful religious experience while attending mass. Later, he sees a vision of the Virgin Mary and believes the Holy Spirit has spoken to him. He declares that he is a prophet. His mood swings and strange behaviour are interpreted as insanity. Marie-Anne (Gaboury) Lagimodiére, maternal grandmother of Louis Riel, dies at the age of 95.	1875 The government of Canada grants amnesty to Riel but banishes him for five years from “Her Majesty’s Dominions.” In the U.S., Mary Baker Eddy writes Science and Health, which will lead to the founding of the Christian Science movement. The Theosophical Society is founded in New York by Madame H.P. Blavatsky and others. Treaty No. 5 between the government of Canada and the Cree and Saulteaux (Plains Ojibwa) is signed. The first organized game of indoor ice hockey is played in Canada at Montreal’s Victoria Skating Rink.
1876 Riel’s uncle, John Lee, smuggles him across the border to Montreal. In March, under the name Louis R. David, he is admitted to an asylum for the insane, the Hospice de St. Jean-de-Dieu, at Longue Pointe. In May, he is sent to the Beauport asylum near Quebec City. He spends his time writing of his mission and creates a new faith, the Catholic, Apostolic, and Vital Church of the Shining Mountains. He writes that the Métis are God’s chosen people, and God has chosen him to be the prophet of the New World. In November, Archbishop Taché visits Riel in the asylum.	1876 Dr. Emily Stowe founds the Toronto Women’s Literary Club, Canada’s first suffrage group. Treaty No. 6 is signed between the government of Canada and the Plains and Wood Cree. The first Indian Act is passed by Canada’s Parliament. Indian agents take control of reserves. Education is the responsibility of the Department of Indian Affairs. Lt. Col. George Custer and the soldiers of the American 7th Cavalry lose the Battle of the Little Big Horn and are massacred by the Sioux and Cheyenne. Alexander Graham Bell registers the first patent for the telephone. In Germany, Nikolaus Otto invents the internal combustion engine.
1877 Riel writes letters to his family from the asylum.	1877 Sioux Chief Crazy Horse surrenders, marking the end of the American Plains Indian Wars. Sioux Chief Sitting Bull leads his Dakota band north to Canada to escape the U.S. army. The Blackfoot Nation, led by Chief Crowfoot, signs Treaty No. 7 with the government of Canada. British Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India.
1878 In January, Riel is released from the asylum. He visits the Barnabé family in Keeseville. In the spring, he rents farmland and plants crops. He and Evelina Barnabé fall in love. After a poor harvest, Riel goes to New York City to look for work, then to St. Paul, Minnesota. He writes poems and love letters to Evelina Barnabé.	1878 In England, William Booth establishes the Salvation Army to take the Christian message to poor, homeless, and destitute people. Charles Taze Russell in the U.S. founds the Jehovah’s Witnesses movement. Pope Pius IX dies at Rome and is succeeded by Pope Leo XIII.
1879 In January, Riel is in St. Joseph, where his mother, brothers, and sisters visit him. Riel stops writing to Evelina Barnabé. In August, he travels to the Saskatchewan territory to meet with Chief Sitting Bull at Wood Mountain. Riel spends the winter in a Métis hunting camp, near Milk River, Montana. He is elected chef du camp	1879 In the U.S., Thomas A. Edison invents the electric light bulb. First Nations people are starving on the reserves on Canada’s Prairies due to the disappearance of the buffalo and crop failures.
1880 In the spring, Riel moves farther south with a group of 30-40 buffalo hunters. He gets permission from the army commander at Fort Benton for his group to spend the winter on a nearby reservation. The winter is harsh. Riel is the spokesperson for the Métis of Montana between 1880 and 1884.	1880 A contract for the construction of a railway from Montreal to the Pacific is awarded to the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) syndicate. In both Canada and the U.S., the buffalo have been hunted almost to extinction. The second Indian Act is passed by Canada’s Parliament.
1881 On April 27, Louis Riel marries Marguerite Monet dit Bellehumeur. Their “country” marriage will be sanctioned by a priest the following year. In the autumn, Louis and Marguerite move with the Métis to Rocky Point on the Missouri River. He sets up a small business as a travelling trader.	1881 In Russia, Czar Alexander II is assassinated. Large numbers of Chinese labourers are brought to Canada to build the CPR through the Rocky Mountains.
1882 In May, a son, Jean, is born to Louis and Marguerite Riel. Grasshoppers again destroy crops arid cause hardship in the Red River area.	1882 Macdonald’s Conservative party is returned to power in Canada’s federal election. The U.S. bans Chinese immigration for ten years.
1883 In March, Riel becomes an American citizen. In April, he takes the job of schoolteacher at St. Peter’s Mission in Montana, to begin in September. In June, he travels to Manitoba to see his family at St. Vital and to investigate the situation with land claims and scrip. In July, Riel attends the wedding of his sister Henriette to Jean-Marie Poitras. He sees family members and many old friends. He returns to Montana in August. In September, the Riels’ second child, a daughter named Marie-Angélique, is born. Riel begins his teaching job in November. In December, his sister Sara dies of tuberculosis.	1883 Honoré Mercier becomes leader of the provincial Liberal party in Quebec. There is again widespread starvation amongst the First Nations on the reserves of Canada’s Prairies. In the U.S, Buffalo Bill Cody organizes his “Wild West Show,” which will tour Europe and the U.S. until 1916. The Paris to Istanbul Orient Express railway completes its first run. The spectacular eruption of Krakatoa Volcano on Pulau Island (now part of Indonesia) sends volcanic dust around the world.
1884 In June, Gabriel Dumont and a delegation of Métis arrive to meet with Louis Riel. They have come 1100 kilometres from the Saskatchewan territory to ask him to help the Métis obtain their legal rights from the Canadian government. Louis Riel and his family travel to Batoche in the South Saskatchewan River Valley with the Métis delegation. In December, a petition drafted by Louis Riel and his supporters is sent to the Governor General with copies to the dominion government.	1884 International Standard Time is adopted at the International Prime Meridian Conference convened by Sandford Fleming in Washington, D.C. Chief Big Bear attempts to unite the Northern Cree; the government of Canada refuses to negotiate with him and he loses the support of his followers. The dominion government bans the potlatch on Canada’s West Coast; the ban will last for sixty years.
1885 In January the dominion government sets up a Land Claims Commission to create a list of Saskatchewan Métis people who might receive land grants. On March 2, Riel asks Father Andre for the support of the Church for a provisional government to renegotiate the rights of the Métis people and is refused. On March 7, the Métis of St. Laurent learn the Canadian government has refused most of them title to the land they have claimed. On March 19, Riel declares a provisional government to be called the Exovedate. On March 26, at Duck Lake, the Métis, led by Gabriel Dumont, clash with the NWMP led by Superintendant Crozier. On March 30, Cree warriors from Poundmaker’s band attack the town of Battleford. Residents take refuge in Fort Battleford. On April 2, Cree warriors from Big Bear’s band kill nine whites at Frog Lake. On April 14, they besiege and then burn down Fort Pitt. On April 24, at Fish Creek, the Métis under Dumont fight the Canadian forces to a standstill. On May 9, the Battle of Batoche begins. On May 12, Canadian troops storm the village, and the battle ends with the defeat of the Métis. On May 15, Riel surrenders to General Middleton. Gabriel Dumont rides for the Montana border. On May 23, Riel is imprisoned in a small cell in the Regina NWMP headquarters. On July 6, he is formally charged with high treason; his trial begins on July 20. On August 1, Riel is found guilty and sentenced to death. His lawyers appeal his sentence. On October 21, Marguerite Riel gives birth to a boy, who dies after two hours. Riel mourns the loss of his son. Public pressure from Quebec delays the execution, but on November 16, in Regina, Louis Riel is hanged.	1885 On March 23, Prime Minister Macdonald orders General Middle-ton to lead an armed force from Canada to the Prairies. The newly built Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) transports soldiers to Fort Qu’Appelle. The raids by First Nations warriors, in which settlers and priests in Saskatchewan are killed, arouse hatred of Riel in English Canada. Chinese people are denied the right to vote in Canadian federal elections; upon entering the country, new Chinese immigrants must pay a fifty-dollar head tax under the Chinese Immigration Act. The CPR is completed; in November, the Last Spike is driven at Craigallachie in British Columbia.
	1992 The House of Commons declares Louis Riel to be one of the founders of Manitoba.